The Mummy's Apprentice
by Elfreida
Summary: Set just after the events of The Mummy Returns, the O'Connells arrive back in Cairo expecting to do little more than go home and not get involved in any more adventures - only to be waylaid by Eleanor Carnahan on her way to a dig in Thebes. Is all as it seems? Then why are there cultists wanting to kill all of them? Some ancient evil has awakened, and a new adventure beckons...


**Prologue**

It was in the hottest part of the Egyptian year that a sun of blood rose over the City of the Living. The night had seen the death of not only Seti the First, Pharaoh and warrior, murdered in the High Palace, but those of his beloved daughter Nefertiri and the betrayer Anck-su-namun. In that red dawn, all the city wept.

Save for one.

Djar, apprentice and assistant to the High Priest, looked on whilst his master prepared to depart. It was his love for Anck-su-namun that drove Imhotep to do such things, but for Djar the secrets held only his desire for power. And he was patient.

When Imhotep and his followers were captured at Hamunaptra, City of the Dead, Djar was nowhere to be found. He had betrayed his black master and rode back to Thebes, begging the forgiveness of the young Pharaoh, Ramesses the Second. Grieved with the death of his father and sister, he foolishly granted Djar freedom from the actions of his master and spared his life.

For long years Djar studied the black arts, secluded in the catacombs beneath the city, and there he grew strong. As the new High Priest, he sought access the holiest vaults, stealing into the reliquaries. Here he searched deep into the realms of power, the secret knowledge of the Ancient Kingdoms, until he was strong enough that none could oppose him. He planned to raise his master from his accursed tomb and together they would lay waste to the land of Egypt, overthrowing the might of the Pharaohs. From this seat, they would then claim rulership over the lands beyond until all the world was under their command, the shadow of their evil stretching forth over the sands.

As his power grew, illness spread over the earth. The crops of Egypt failed, and the water carried his poison. Famine and disease stalked the people until at last Ramesses the Second fell to the sickness wrought by his Priest. It seemed for a time that the world was ripe fall, and that Djar was ready to show his true colours.

But hope was not lost.

There remained a heart too true to fall to Djar's evil; she who would become known as our _Monqeth_, our Saviour. A woman with hair to match the fire in her heart, eyes that shone gold in the sunlight and a blade as silver as the Nile. She came out of the desert after long years in exile, but she was known to Ramesses, and with her help the Medjai uncovered the truth.

Disgraced, Djar fled, vowing revenge on the woman who had dared defy him. It seemed the sorcerer had been defeated, but Djar was not so easily turned aside. Deep in the City of the Dead, he used the arts and rituals taught to him by Imhotep to raise him an army of the un-dead. These fiendish soldiers which knew neither pain nor fear were nightmares of rotting flesh, guided by Djar's will, and set against the walls of Thebes.

The Medjai did what they could to secure the defence of the city, but it was without knowing Djar's true purpose. Cloaked in shadow, he slipped into the city and made to steal one of the sacred artefacts rumoured to give him power over the living. Hearing of this, the Monqeth made to stop him, but it was a trap to capture her. For his retribution, Djar took her back to Hamunaptra, abandoning his attack on Thebes to gather his army at the black city. With the sacrifice of a living body, he could call his master Imhotep back from the dead and their combined power would be enough to strike down Ramesses rule.

But they were followed. The daring young Medjai commander, Anen, son of Khensuhotep, had taken a score of men to rescue the Monqeth.

Battling through the army of corpses, he came at last to the Chambers of Ritual, but was too late to save her. Even as Anen watched, Djar drove the dagger into her heart, so spilling her blood over the stone and summoning the spirit of Imhotep from the underworld. The men of the Medjai were enraged, and drove Djar back from the chambers. But the curse was already laid: the spirit of Imhotep repelled them, forcing their retreat. Seeing that there was no hope, Anen took the body of the Monqeth in his arms and drew from her side the Silver Blade.

Where others had fled, he charged Djar, heedless of his servant's weapons and the dark power of his enemy. Anen avenged the Monqeth's death by plunging her sword through Djar's black heart, sending him and his power to the dark underworld. Without his magic, the army of corpses crumbled to ash, and the spirit of Imhotep was ripped from the world. Djar was, at last, defeated.

Though he was gravely injured, Anen asked that Djar's body be burned under the curses of the Ancient Kingdom, in a coffin unmarked of the sacred spells. The ashes would then be stored in an urn in the recesses of the city, never to be opened.

The Monqeth was to be given a burial in the honour of the Medjai, among their revered dead beneath the city of Thebes. Laid there also would be the Silver Blade, slayer of the sorcerer, as a sacred heirloom of our order beneath the stones of the living. There it would be preserved for all time, if ever there was a time when it would be needed again…

_**The Mummy's Apprentice**_


End file.
